Paul Stanley

Success wouldn’t happen by chance; it would happen by design.

My gut also told me that this was an area where work might not pay off for me—that I might get only mediocre results regardless of how much time I put into it.

We also made sure the audience could be heard throughout the show—just as you would experience it live. Most live albums in those days sounded like studio recordings until the song ended, when some applause could be heard between songs. But we wanted to portray the real concert experience. And the back cover paid tribute to those fans who made all that noise and turned our shows into such powerful communal events

The way I saw it, KISS wasn’t going against anything, whether it was religion or politics. KISS wasn’t even about rebellion. We didn’t tell people to tear anything down or to refuse to play by the rules. We said, Become who you want to be. It was about self-empowerment. It was celebratory. For me, it wasn’t about fighting the system, it was about picking your path and believing in yourself.

thought it could also represent for other people—for fans. Maybe that’s why our audiences were all smiles. We were singing about how good life could be and how much you could accomplish by believing in yourself. Despite what the religious protesters said, KISS was all positivity

The surprise came a few months later when Slash called me and wanted to follow up on my offer to help him get some free guitars.

“You want me to help you get guitars after you went around saying all that shit about me behind my back?”

Slash got real quiet.

“You know, one thing you’re going to have to learn is not to air your dirty laundry in public. Nice knowing you. Go fuck yourself.”

When the tour stopped in Manhattan for two gigs at the Ritz, Eric Carr came to one of the shows and sat in the balcony with his head resting on the railing through the entire show. Afterwards he came backstage and, out of left field, turned to Eric Singer and said, “You’re going to replace me.”

“What are you talking about?” I said

Erin would never do something that took away her pride, but she wasn’t tangled up in bullshit—being kind and giving wasn’t a negative to her and didn’t chip away at her sense of self.

They say that the two most important days in our lives are the day we’re born and the day we find out why. And that’s a great insight.

Except there’s no single day that we find out why. Life tells us why in an ongoing way. Experiencing life and taking it all in is a continuous process.

I’m Jewish, then my child is Jewish. Whether or not everyone agrees with that is irrelevant. When you embrace who you are with pride and without excuse, you dignify who you are.